Swiss insurer Baloise relies on Panalpina’s Trans-Siberian route

The insurance company Baloise Group has chosen Panalpina’s tried and tested Trans-Siberian rail service to transport more than 3,400 editions of its new board game from Shanghai, China to its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

Printed and produced in Shanghai, the 3,412 Baloise board games traveled more than 9,000 km from China to Europe over 20 days. Weighing 11 tons and packed into containers, the games went by rail from China – through Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus – to Poland and Germany, coordinated by Panalpina’s regional hub in Vienna, and were then loaded onto trucks to go to Switzerland. The games reached Basel a week ago and will now be further distributed to Baloise’s offices in Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg.

In September 2016, Panalpina launched its first own-controlled Less than Container Load (LCL) rail service from China to Poland. Own-controlled means Panalpina takes care of pick-up and consolidation in China and deconsolidation and delivery in Europe.

“We take care of the entire transport, from pick-up and consolidation in Shanghai, via rail to Warsaw, Poland, where we deconsolidate the cargo and deliver to final destinations across Europe by truck,” says Pascal Kaltenrieder, Panalpina’s business unit manager for Basel, Switzerland.

Packed, consolidated and ready to roll: The container with the Baloise board games at the start of the journey in Shanghai. (Photo: Panalpina)

Road and rail services are gaining ground as a reliable, cost-effective and secure alternative to air and ocean transportation. Panalpina Poland was recognized as one of the best rail freight providers at the Logistics Provider of the Year 2018 awards ceremony, held in Warsaw at the end of January 2019.

To find out more about Panalpina’s LCL rail service from China to Europe, contact: rail.europe@panalpina.com

Baloise and the strategy game

Baloise had created this original board game called ‘Sarah’s Vision’ with professional game developers, as a tool for employees to understand and experience its company strategy. The story-based game is for one to four players, who have to manage resources with the goal of saving the world from going back to the dark ages.

“The strategy board game is a first for Baloise and we wanted to turn to a local, trusted partner of ours,” says Renée Hernández, communications manager from Baloise. “Panalpina’s road and rail service was the smartest solution to transport our cargo from China to Europe. We were very satisfied with the end-to-end solution – it helped us greatly and we could always see where the cargo was.”